Belichick Offers Details on Footballs and Again Denies Wrongdoing

Saying his team had “followed every rule to the letter,” New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick described in detail how the squad prepared its footballs on game days and defended his players from suggestions that they had reached the Super Bowl by cheating.

In an unscheduled news conference Saturday afternoon, eight days before the Patriots were to play the Seattle Seahawks for the N.F.L. championship, Belichick revealed the results of the team’s internal study of how the footballs it used were prepared to quarterback Tom Brady’s liking.

“There have been questions raised,” Belichick said, “and I believe now, 100 percent, that I have personally, and we have as an organization, have absolutely followed every rule to the letter. At no time was there any intent to compromise the integrity of the game or to gain an advantage.”

He added: “Quite the opposite; we feel like we followed the rules of the game to the letter. We try to do everything right. We err on the side of caution. It’s been that way now for many years. Anything that’s close, we stay as far away from the line as we can.”

Most of the process is designed to make the footballs tackier for a better grip, Belichick said, but some steps may also affect the air pressure of the ball.

“I’m not a scientist,” he said. “I’m not an expert in footballs; I’m not an expert in football measurements. I’m just telling you what I know.”

The Patriots reached the Super Bowl for the sixth time in Belichick’s tenure when they beat the Indianapolis Colts, 45-7, in the A.F.C. championship game last Sunday. After the game, the Indianapolis television station WTHR reported that some of the game balls that New England had provided and used on offense were not sufficiently inflated to the league’s specifications.

The N.F.L. has confirmed that it is investigating, and the Patriots have vowed to cooperate. Belichick said last week that he did not know how the game balls had been prepared, deferring to Brady, who also denied any impropriety.

But with little other news before Super Bowl week, the allegations received plenty of attention — and Twitter hashtags such as “Deflategate” and “Ballghazi” — along with comparisons to the Patriots’ videotaping scandal in 2007, when the team was hit with unprecedented penalties after Belichick was caught recording the Jets’ coaches sending signals from the sideline.

Belichick denied that his team had engaged in a pattern of rule-breaking, or even pushed the rules to their limit.

“It was wrong,” Belichick said of the videotaping scandal. “We were disciplined for it. That’s it. We never did it again. We’re never going to do it again. And anything else that’s close, we’re not going to do it, either.”

A football lifer with a reputation for showing little emotion, Belichick is also known for absolute attention to detail and preparing his team for every imaginable situation.

But in addition to getting ready for the Super Bowl, he said he had spent far too much time during the past week studying science and learning about how varying conditions could affect a football’s pressure.

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In an unscheduled news conference in Foxborough, Mass., on Saturday, Bill Belichick described an internal study into how footballs are prepared to quarterback Tom Brady’s liking.CreditSteven Senne/Associated Press

“I’m embarrassed to talk about the amount of time that I’ve put into this relative to the other important challenge in front of us,” Belichick said. “There are a lot of variables. I’m not saying we’re trying to land a guy on the moon, but there are a lot of things that are hard to get a handle on.”

Belichick seemed most emotional when he was defending his players. Among the questions he and the team were asked last week was whether they had cheated to reach the Super Bowl.

Belichick praised the players, who went 12-4 in the regular season, won an 11th A.F.C. East title in 12 seasons, made a fourth straight trip — and ninth over all — to the conference championship game, and earned a chance for a fourth Super Bowl title in Belichick’s tenure.

“They’re a physically and mentally tough team that works hard, that trains hard, that prepares hard and have met every challenge that I put in front of them,” he said.

“This team was the best team in the A.F.C. in the regular season,” he added. “We won two games in the playoffs. That’s what this team is. I know that because I’ve been with them every day.”

JETS HIRE ASSISTANT Pepper Johnson, who won two Super Bowls as a linebacker for the Giants before ending his career with the Jets, was hired as the Jets’ defensive line coach.

Johnson, 50, spent 14 years as an assistant with New England before coaching the Bills’ defensive line last season.

Johnson will be in charge of the Jets’ strongest unit, highlighted by Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson. He replaced Karl Dunbar, who left to join Rex Ryan’s staff in Buffalo. BEN SHPIGEL

FOLLOWING FOX TO CHICAGO The Chicago Bears hired Bo Hardegree as an offensive assistant.

Hardegree followed the new Chicago coach John Fox from Denver, where he spent this season as an offensive quality control coach. The Broncos were second in the N.F.L. in scoring offense (30.1 points per game) and fourth in total offense (402.9 yards per game). (AP)

TESTING TABLETS FOR REVIEWS The N.F.L. will test having game officials use tablets for video reviews during Sunday’s Pro Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.

This season, coaches and players have been using Microsoft tablets on the sidelines for the first time to look at photos of previous plays.

Using the tablets to determine if officials’ calls were correct could lead to eliminating referees’ going “under the hood” for reviews.

“The test in the Pro Bowl gives us the opportunity to see the practicality of the technology in game-time situations, make adjustments or improvements where necessary, and also gauge the usefulness of it to the officials,” Troy Vincent, the N.F.L.’s football operations chief, said. “Certainly, we believe it is an enhancement that we would like to integrate in the future.”

An N.F.L. staff member will wear a backpack containing wireless radios and will hold a tablet and headphones for reviews during the game.

When a video review is needed, that staff member will hold the tablet, and the referee John Parry will don the headphones. It is hoped that this will speed the entire process. (AP)

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